Food

Food sustains the existence of every living being. It is a substance primarily composed of carbohydrates, proteins, fats and water eaten and drunk by humans and animals for subsistence. The food source can be from animals, plants or even fermented products and fungi such as mushrooms and yeasts.

In the earlier human cultures and societies, food was sought through hunting and gathering. Today however, farming, ranching and fishing combined with hunting and foraging as well as other methods have evolved as additional ways of food production.

As societies even more advanced through the years, food preparation practices have also become more complex. Diversified food has been adopted by many cultures with regards food preparation, manufacturing and methods of cooking. Along with this diversification came the complex food trade allowing the cultures to survive their economy.

Plants and animals compose almost all sources of food. While this is almost 100% true, another viable food source includes the edible fungi like the mushrooms. Along with the fungi, the ambient bacteria are used to prepare pickled and fermented food. Equally, seaweed and blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) serve as food for many cultures. Also, many inorganic substances such as salt and baking soda are used to prepare food and are significant part of human diet.

The evolution of food production, preparation and marketing

Complexity became an ingredient in the evolution of food preparation. Along with the multifaceted elements of food production came the versatility in food preparation with the passing of the years. Cooking equipment and methods continue to be discovered and invented to suit the cooking lifestyles and food preference of more complex cultures. Endless efforts continue to improve cooking equipments and utensils while food preparation methods also pursue its complex evolution consequently becoming more costly.

Marketing and retailing of food has evolved as a tool to bring to the efforts of the producer closer to the consumer. If in the past one can hunt and gather or grow in the backyard and harvest his own food, today a chain of activities is necessary to bring food from the farm gate to the peoples' plate. This modern day practice took its roots from the pre-modern era where there was food surplus created that was taken by farmers to the local village marketplace. Soon supermarkets were born in the 20th century where food and other basic necessities were sold to consumers. Food retailing became a two-tiered market controlled by large companies with far greater marketing power over food processors and farmer producers also greatly influencing the consumers.